,5^ 




-T'REPORT^ 



OF THE 



New Yoi<l( Board of Coii|n|i^^ionei<$, 



GETTYSBURG MONUMENTS. 



2^ To 
"^ The Leo'idatKre : 

^ The anclersigned, Commissioners appointed under chap- 
ter 466, of the Laws of 1886, to designate and mark the 
positions occupied by New York troops on the battle field 
of Gettysburg, and to make suitable recommendations to 
the Legislature for the erection of monuments commemor- 
ating the services of New York Eegimeuts and Batteries 
in that battle, have the honor to report : 

That in the discharge of their duties the Commissioners 
have held sundry meetings at Gettysburg, Albany and 
New York, to which they invited delegations representing 
the survivors of the eighty-seven New York regiments and 
batteries that fought at Gettysburg, and after hearing all 
parties interested, the Commissioners have determined 
and marked all the positions where monuments should be 
placed. 

These positions are shown on the map accompanving 
this report, prepared after a careful survey of the battle- 
field by Gen. Charles K. Graham, civil engineer, chosen 
for that duty by the Commissioners, and appointed as the 
engineer of the Board at their first session in Gettysburg, 
held in July last. 

So far as the Commissioners are informed this survey of 
the battlefield is the most comprehensive and accurate of 
any that has been made, and is of itself a valuable contri- 
bution to the historical records of the battle. The Com- 
missioners have paid from the small appropriation avail- 
able to them, only the actual expenses incurred by the 
engineer in the performance of his duties ; the sum ap- 
propriated by the Legislature, $5,000, being insufficient 
to provide for any compensation to the engineer, or to the 
Commissioners, who have only drawn upon the fund for 
their necessary traveling expenses. 

Upon the organization of the Board of Commissioners 
in June last, Major-General Daniel E. Sickles was chosen 
Chairman, Major George W. Cooney was appointed Secre- 
tary, receiving $100 a month for his services in attending 
daily at the office of the Commissioners in New York, and 
for conducting the large correspondence of the Commis- 
sion and keeping its records. 



Of the sum of $5,000 appropriated by chapter 466 of 
the laws of 1886, to pay the disbursements of the Board in 
the performance of their duties $2,893.82, have been ex- 
pended; leaving in the treasury $2,106.18, still available 
for the purposes of the act. 

The Commissioners have the honor to transmit here- 
with the draft of a bill embracing such enactments and 
appropriations as will, in their judgment, be necessary to 
provide for the erection of suitable monuments to com- 
memorate the services and sacrifices of the New York 
troops at Gettysburg, and this bill is respectfully sub- 
mitted for the consideration of the Legislature. 

It will be observed that it is proposed (section 1,) to 
make an appropriation of $1,500 for each regiment and 
battery of New York troops, engaged in the battle, to be 
expended under the supervision of the Commissioners, in 
the erection of appropriate monuments with suitable in- 
scriptions, marking the respective positions of our troops 
during the conflict. In this recommendation the Com- 
missioners have followed the example of all the States 
which have made similar appropriations, they have all 
made provision for separate monuments, designating the 
position of each regiment and battery. 

There are now erected on the battlefield 90 regimental 
and battery monuments. Of this number Massachusetts 
has 30, including all her regiments and batteries that took 
part in the battle; Pennsylvania, 28; Connecticut, 4; New 
Hampshire, 3; Rhode Island, 4; Indiana, 6; Delaware, 3; 
whilst the State of New York, which had eighty-seven reg- 
iments and batteries in the battle, is only represented by 
two regimental monuments, both of which were paid for 
by the survivors of the respective battalions, to wit: the 
124th N. Y., of Orange County, known as the "Orange 
Blossoms," and belonging to the Third Army Corps; and 
the 157th Regiment, of Madison and Cortland Counties, 
and belonging to the 11th Corps. Ohio has appropriated 
$1,500 each for all of her regiments engaged at Gettysburg, 
and her monuments will be dedicated this year. All of 
the States above named, except New York, have appro- 
priated from $500 to $1,500 for each command. 

The cost of the ninety monuments so far erected, 
ranges from $1,000, expended for the monuments built for 



^y^Q\ 



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the 1st Massachusetts, and for the 124th New York, 
respectively, down to $750, which is the amount appro- 
priated by Delaware, for each of her regiments and 
batteries. In nearly every instance, considerable addi- 
tions have been made by subscriptions raised among the 
survivors, to the sum appropriated by the Legislatures ; 
and as we have already mentioned, the only two monu- 
ments marking the positions of New York regiments, were 
wholly paid for by the survivors themselves, in the absence 
of any appropriation from our State. 

Several States, including New York, have made appro- 
priations for the purchase of land on which their monu- 
ments are placed, and for laying out avenues leading to 
them. For these purposes Pennsylvania has given $16,000; 
New York, $10,000; New Jersey, $3,000; Vermont, 
$2,500; Massachusetts, $5,000; Ehode Island, $1,000; and 
New Hampshire, $1,000. 

The Commissioners respectfully recommend a further 
appropriation for the purchase of necessary lands for sites 
and avenues leading to them, which, in their judgment, 
should not be less than $10,000, to be expended under the 
direction of the Commissioners, with the approval of the 
Comptroller. 

If it be the pleasure of the Legislature that the Com- 
missioners shall proceed in the execution of the duties 
assigned to them in the proposed Bill, an appropriation 
not less than the amount provided for in section 7, to wit, 
$10,000, will be neceesary to pay the engineer and his 
assistants, and to meet other proper expenditures. 

It is unnecessary for the undersigned to undertake any- 
thing like a discussion of the reasons which commend 
liberal appropriations to provide suitable monuments com- 
memorating the heroic conduct of our troops at Gettys- 
burg. By common consent this famous battlefield has been 
chosen to signalize the patriotism, valor and fortitude of 
the defenders of the Union in the great Civil War of 
1861-5. It was a decisive victory, won at a moment when 
defeat might have been ruinous to our cause. The assaults 
upon our lines at Gettysburg were made by the most 
powerful army ever encountered by the Union forces ; the 
advance of the army of Gen. Lee to the Susquehanna 
marked the extreme limit reached by the invading forces 



of the South; the victory of Gettysburg, contemporaneous 
with the capture of Vicksburg, proved to the European 
powers the supremacy of the North and deprived our 
enemies of all hope of foreign interference in their behalf; 
to the Union forces in this decisive conflict the State of New 
York contributed more men than any other State, and our 
losses in killed and wounded were greater than those of 
any of our sister Commonwealths. It is surely most 
fitting that upon a battlefield so memorable in American 
annals, and in which the volunteer soldiers of our State 
bore so distinguished a part, New York should be repre- 
sented by monuments not inferior in impressiveness to 
those erected by any other State. 

The surviving volunteer soldiers of New York, mindful 
of the large expenditures necessary in recent j-ears for the 
completion of our capital at Alban}^ have deferred making 
any application to the Legislature for such an appropria- 
tion as is now asked for, because they felt uuwilliug to in- 
crease the burdens of taxation for purposes not demanded 
by any exigency. Bat now when our State is becoming 
conspicions in comparison with Connecticut, Rhode 
Island, and Delaware, for what it has iwt done in recog- 
nizing its grateful appreciation of the services of its 
soldiers, it is believed that the moment is opportune for 
the consideration of the Bill siibmitted by the Commis- 
sioners. 

Besides the regimental memorials marking the positions 
where the New York troops fought, it is respectfully sug- 
gested that in honor of more than eight hundred name- 
less dead, who fell in the ranks of the New York troops 
at Gettysburg, and who are buried on the field, that a 
conspicions monument should be erected on the battle- 
field by the State of New York. Snch a monument is pro- 
vided for in Section 6 of the bill submitted b}- the Commis- 
sioners with this report. The estimated cost of the several 
designs proposed, is from $50,000 to $100,000, according 
to the dimensions given. It seems fit and proper that the 
unmarked remains of nearly a thousand of our brave sons 
should no longer lie unnoticed and neglected on the 
ground where they gave their lives to their country. 
The state monument which the Commissioners ask 
authority to erect would testify to unnumbered genera- 



tions the grateful recognition accorded by our people in 
these tranquil and prosperous days, to those who sacrificed 
all they could give for the honor and welfare of the Union. 
Although the amount appropriated in the accompany- 
ing Bill is considerable, it is augmented by the very large 
number of New York commands which took part in the 
battle of Gettysburg. Nevertheless, the sum asked for is 
not more than $29.50 a head for the New York killed and 
wounded in the conflict, and not more than the aggregate 
bounties paid in 1864 for two hundred recruits. Three 
hundred and seven commands in the army of the Potomac 
oflicially report losses at Gettysburg, amounting in the 
aggregate to twenty-two thousand nine hundred and 
ninety officers and men; and, of these, the eighty-seven 
New York commands in the battle lost six thousand seven 
hundred and seventy-seven, nearly one third of the total 
number of casualties. 

In all ages of the world's history, and in all countries, 
the admiration of the people for their military heroes has 
sought expression in costly monuments, built in honor of 
great commanders. In this couu'ry the disposition is to 
commemorate the virtues and services of our citizen 
soldiers, upon whom the brunt and burden of our civil 
war mainly felk The monuments for Avhich provision is 
made in this report, and the accompanying Bill, will have a 
touching interest for hundreds of thousands of our citizens 
in all parts of our State, who are associated by ties of 
blood and friendship with the New York commands that 
fought at Gettysburg. It will be the aim of the Com- 
missioners, so far as their authority shall extend, to super- 
vise the designs and materials adopted for the New York 
monuments, so that these tributes of a grateful and 
patriotic people, paid to the memory of their defenders, 
shall not be unworthy of the culture and art of the epoch 
in which we live. 

D. E. SICKLES, 
H. W. SLOCUM. 
J. B CARE, 
C. A. RICHARDSON, 
J. PORTER. 
Albany, Feb. 17th, 1887. 



AN ACT to provide for the erection of suitable monuments to 
the memory of the Soldiers of the State of New York, who 
were engaged in the battle of Gettysburg. 

The People of the Slate of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as folhnvs : 

Section 1. The commissioners appointed by and pursuant to 
Chapter 466 of the Laws of 1886, are hereby authorized and 
directed to erect a monument on the battlefield of Gettysburg, in 
the State of Pennsylvania, to each of the regiments and batteiies 
of the State of New York, hereinafter mentioned, at an expense 
$1,500 each, upon the site which shall have been designated by 
said commissioners as the principal and proper position of such 
regiment or battery on said batilelield, but prior to the erection of 
such monuments, the said cominissioners shall secure, through the 
Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association, a corporation formed 
by an act of the General Assembly of the State of Pennsylvania, 
approved April 30th, 1864, or by other proper means, the dedica- 
tion of the ground upon which each of said monuments shall rest, 
to the memorial purposes for which said monuments shall be 
erected, with the right of free access thereto by the public, subject, 
nevertheless, to the rules and regulations of said Memorial 
Association for the protection and preservation of said grounds 
and the monuments to be erected thereon. 

The following are the regiments and batteries for which monu- 
ments shall be erected under the provisions of this act : — 

The Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Regiments of New 
York Cavalry; batteries B, C, D, G, I, K, L and M of the first 
regiment of New York Light Artillery; the First, Third, Fourth, 
Fifth, Sixth, Thirleenth and Fifteenth New York Independent 
Batteries, and the Tenth, Thirty-Ninth, Fortieth, Forty-First, 
Forty-Second, Forty-Third, Forty-Fouith, Forty-Fifth, Forty- 
Ninth, Fifty-Second, Fifty-Fourth, Fifty-Seventh, Fifty- 
Eighth, Fifty Ninth, Sixtieth, Sixty-First, Sixty-Second, Sixty- 
Third, Sixty-Fourth, Sixty-Fifth, Sixty-Sixth, Sixty Seventh, Sixty- 
Eighth, Sixty-Ninth, Seventieth, Seventy-First, Seventy-Second, 
Seventy-Third, Seventy-Fourth, Seventy-Sixth, Seventy-Seventh, 
Seventy-Eighth, Eightieth, Eighty-Second, Eighty Third, Eighty- 
Fourth, Eighty-Sixth, Eighty Eighth, Ninety-Third, Ninety- 
Fourth, Ninety-Fifth, Ninety-Seventh, One Hundred and Second, 
One Hundred and Fourth, One Hundred and Seventh, One 
Hundred and Eighth, One Hundred and Eleventh, One Hundred 
and Nineteenth, One Hundred and Twentieth, One Hundred and 
Twenty-First, One Hundred and Twenty-Second, One Hundred 



and Twenty-third, One Hundred and Twenty-Fourth, One Hun • 
dred and Twenty-Fifth, One Hundred and Twenty-Sixth, One 
Hundred and Thirty-Fourth, One Hundred and Thirty-Sixth, One 
Hundred and Thirty-Seventh, One Hundred and Fortieth, One 
Hundred and Forty-Fifth, One Hundred and Forty-Sixth, One 
Hundred and Forty-Seventh, One Hundred and Forty-Ninth, 
One Hundred and Fiftieth, One Hundred and Fifty-Fourth, One 
Hundred and Fifiy-Seventh regiments of New York Infantry, and 
the First Regiment of U. S. Sharp Shooters. 

§ 2. In case any proper representative organization of the 
survivors ol any such regiment or battery shall desire to have one 
or more monuments to such regiment or battery erected at a 
greater expense than $1,500, such organization may present its 
application with designs and specifications for such monument or 
monuments and estimates of the cost thereof, and said commis- 
sioners may in their discretion approve of such designs and specifi- 
cations, or of any modification thereof, or substitute therefor which 
shall be off'ered by such organization, and when the designs and 
specifications of such organization shall have been approved and 
accepted, the said commissioners may erect such monument or 
monuments upon the condition that said organization shall pay 
all the expenses thereof in excess of $1,500. And said commis- 
sioners may make such rules and regulations as they may deem 
necessary and proper to carry out the provisions of this section, 
and to protect the State in the erection of such monuments. 

§ 3. The said commissioners shall have full control in every 
respect of the erection of said monuments, but each monument 
shall bear upon some conspicious part thereof, the coat of arms 
of the State of New York, and so far as practicable a statement of 
the precise time when the position was held by the regiment or 
battery it represents, and the principal movements made by such 
regiment or battery during the battle. 

§ 4. The said commissioners are hereby directed to consult 
and advise with the survivors of said regiments and batteries so far 
as practicable, concerning the designs of said monuments and the 
inscriptions to be placed thereon, and to prescribe rules and 
regulations to govern the consideration and determination of the 
matters relating thereto. 

§ 5. When said monuments shall have been erected to the 
satisfaction of the said commissioner-', as provided by this act, the 
care and custody of them may be entrusted to the said Gettysburg 
Battlefield Memorial Association for protection and preservationin 
accordance with the rules and regulations of said Association there • 
for, provided however that the State of New York shall have the 
right at all Umes to take such proper measures to secure the pro- 
tection and preservation of said monuments and the grounds on 
which they stand as shall be consistent with the sovereignty and 
jurisdiction of the State of Pennsylvania. 



8 

§ 6. The said commissioners are hereby further authorized and 
directed to cause to be erected upon said battlefield a suitable 
memorial structure to the memory of the officers and soldiers of 
the State of New York, who fell in the battle of Gettysburg ; and 
said memorial structure and an appropriate inscription thereon 
shall specially relate to the New York soldiers who are buried in 
the National Cemetery at Gettysburg. 

§ 7. The following sums, or so much thereof as may be neces" 
sary, are hereby appropriated out of any money in the treasury no'^ 
otherwise appropriated, for the purpose of carrying out the provi- 
sions of this act, to wit : $50,000 for the erection of the memorial 
structure authorized by section (5 of this act; the sum of $130,500 
for the erection of the monuments authorized by section 1 of this 
act; the sum of $10, 000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, 
for securing proper sites for all of said monuments and suitable 
avenues leading thereto; and the sum of $10,000. or so muchthere- 
of as may be necessary, for the payment of the services of the 
necessary engineers, surveyors, agents and employees of said 
commissioners, and for such other expersesas may be required to 
carry out the provisions of this act, including the actual and 
necessary travelingand other contingent expenses incurred by said 
commissioners in the discliarge of their duties. 

§ 8. The money hereby appropriated shall be paid by the 
Treasurer upon the order of the Comptroller on proper vouchers 
therefor, duly audited and approved by said Commissioners, and 
certified by the presiding officer of said board of commissioners, 
and the said commissioners shall make a full report of their pro- 
ceedings to the next Legislature, and at such other times as may 
be hereafter required by the Governor or the Legislature. 

§ 9. It shall be the duty of the Governor from time to time, 
as he shall deem proper, at least once in every three y^ears, to 
cause to be inspected all the monuments which shall be erected 
under this act, and the grounds and avenues secured therefor, and 
to examine and inquire into the means employed for their protec- 
tion and preservation, and report their condition, with such facts 
in relation thereto as he may deem proper, to the Legislature. 

§ 10. This act shall take effect immediately. 



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